Wednesday, January 27, 2010

I kept talking to myself and wishing my dad was here while watching the State of the Union, so I decided to take notes because I am a huge dork. I wasn’t able to watch the whole thing because my Tivo wouldn’t let me rewind all the way or pause but here is what I thought about what I heard.Sustainable energy. Awesome. He talked about building clean nuclear power plants which I am a huge supporter of and increasing offshore drilling which I also support. He mentioned global warming but honestly I don’t even think of global warming when I think about clean, sustainable energy- I think about the fact that America is in a much better position when we are not relying on the Middle East for our energy. That just makes sense.I don’t really understand what he was saying about exports. He “pledges” to increase our exports by 50% in a year, I think he said. That just sounds like a number he threw out there, to me. I don’t understand how we can be exporting more goods when other countries are producing goods so much cheaper. I’m not saying I agree with the way other countries run factories or pay workers, I think it’s horrible. But it’s a sad truth that the U.S. can’t compete in many areas because of these injustices.Tuition stuff sounds great!!! He’s talking about giving families a $10,000 tax credit for a 4-year education and forgiveness of student loans after 10 or 20 years. He said no one should be in a financial strain because of the decision to go to college. That sounds so awesome but I’m still facing the problem of trust when it comes to this administration. It’s been a year since he’s been in office and I think, as a Republican, I really went into last year with an open mind, hoping for the best but also keeping my eyes and ears open. Up until this point I haven’t seen him accomplish much, except run us another trillion dollars into debt. A trillion, in a year people! The tuition part of the speech sounded a little like “I’ll make coke come out of the drinking fountain” in a Jr. high election. I’ve heard a bill has already passed to relieve public servants of student loans after 10 years but that it will never get funding. So apparently just passing those bills doesn’t do a whole lot if the money isn’t there- which it’s not.Now he’s talking about the deficit. He’s talking about a 3 year spending freeze that will save us some odd billion dollars over the next ten years. How does it make sense to calculate the savings over 10 years when the freeze is for 3 years? Then he mentioned the freeze won’t take effect for another year. I heard some sarcastic chuckling in the audience over that one.Tax cuts- says he will extend tax cuts to middle-class but Aaron says our taxes already went up. I guess we’re getting $16 less a month in our checks because of income taxes. Weird. Sick of him talking about “the last 8 years” ugh. Just move on.Talking about health care reform. What he talked about sounds more like health insurance reform which I am all for… but what isn’t he telling us? Why was this so debated? I think everything he talked about competitive options for health insurance, etc. is what we need. However, the last thing I want is government run hospitals. I hear people who have lived in other countries talk about the government hospitals and they are so scary and take so long to get into. Some of them have private hospitals but they’re way too expensive for the average person to afford. It’s stories like that that really scare me about this “health care reform.” He says if anyone has a “better idea” he’s ready to hear it. But I’ve heard lots of better ideas out there and he doesn’t seem to be listening.Absolutely agree about lobbying money. Elections shouldn’t be paid for by lobbyists.Also all for earmark reform.National security. I’m actually surprised and glad that he’s taking national security so seriously and increasing troops in Afghanistan. From what I’ve seen that area is still very far from under control. It’s an interesting shift to see how he was going to yank all our troops before he got elected and how his tone has changed. Just goes to show that he now has intelligence as President that he didn’t have as a senator. Either that or he just wanted to win the election by saying he would end the war.He says we’ll be out of Iraq by the end of the office. That’s another 3 years. We’ll see. The army generals aren’t applauding when he said that the war is ending and all the troops are coming home. Interesting. So glad he told America to support the troops when they come home. Now the generals are applauding. Largest increase for veterans in decades last year. I am all for supporting the vets. There are a lot of cuts I’d make to support the vets and military families.Generals also didn’t clap for the allowing gays in the military thing.Threat of nuclear weapons. Arms control treaty. Good.Oh don’t you squash the pundants… He’s talking about the media and kind of insinuating that the media critics, aka people like Glenn Beck, Rush and all the other conservative talk show hosts are fostering negativity in the country. You know what, the media is the check and balance of the government and if we don’t have people speaking out against the government, that is when things get really scary. True, some are extreme, but cynicism is healthy at a time like this. How many people are going to take the time to do the research these talk show hosts do? Hardly anyone. I, myself, rely on them for the “other side of the story.” It scares me that he would even bring up the media because any government control of the media is downright terrifying.Well that’s it. I know, I’m a dork. But now I’ll remember what my political views were in 2010, lol.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Playing princess is a regular occurance in our house. What's NOT so regular is that Aaron got to be the princess! This was all Brighton's doing and yes, he is wearing lip gloss. What a good sport! Is it weird that he's actually a little pretty? LOL.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Brighton went to her three-year-old checkup today and after crying for 15 minutes before even going, she did great. We brought her little doctor kit, so she could see what they were using and our doctor who I *love* Dr. Alli, used her little pink tools before the real ones. So at 3 she weighs 32 pounds, which is 75% for weight and is 38 1/2 inches which is 85% and her BMI is 15 which is 25%. She got three immunizations and now she's all caught up. She was so brave, she whimpered a little but she said she was going to be really brave and she was! She didn't even cry!The Dr. did the screening tests to see where she's at and she said she's more on the level of a 4 or 5 year old because of how smart she is, recognizing all the "hard" shapes and recognizing letters and starting to write letters. She does walk with her feet slightly in and has a lisp, which could be a result of the 2 years of binkie usage. Whoops. She said she'll grow out of it though. After we were done I took her to the "Lollipop Stop" by our house and she got to pick out a sucker. Ok I've adequately documented her 3-year-old milestones. ;)

Monday, January 11, 2010

I can't believe little Bright Bright is 3! How did this happen so quickly? The thing that sticks out in my mind about Bright right now is that she is a VERY grateful child. I decided to count today to see how many times a day she says "thank you" and she was at preschool this morning so from the hours of 1-4 pm she's said "thank you" about 15 times. She says it ALL the time and she is so sweet. We've been really lucky that we don't have many problems with her. Sure, when she doesn't get enough sleep we pay the price because she gets whiny and can throw the occasional tantrum, but she really didn't have bad "terrible two's" I don't think. She's usually just a happy, imaginative girl. She just makes up little games all day and talks to her "friends" all day (stuffed animals, dolls, wooden spoons, whatever)... she loves to color, play play-doh, dress-up and mostly make-believe. We're constantly playing "You be the (blank) and I be the (blank). She's the mommy and I'm the little "grill" or she's the princess and I'm the evil queen or she's Nanny (her preschool teacher) and I'm Brighton, etc. At her birthday party at my parent's house over Christmas break before she opened any present she would ask who it was from. Then she'd get this very excited face and put down the present and run and give them a hug and a kiss and say thank you. She did this before every single present. It was hilarious. At her first ever "friend" party she wanted to make puppets, so I found some easy foam puppets at Walmart. Then we played pin the tail on the donkey and duck duck goose and freeze dance and then decorated and ate cupcakes! It was very fun. I'm so excited to have this next baby but also a little sad that our Brighton and mommy alone time is coming to an end. I think the bond I have with her will always be special because of all this time we've had by ourselves every day just the two of us. (weep, weep, wail, wail, gnash teeth.. ok it's not THAT dramatic.) I love you Budah-bear. (She hates when I call her that.) But she calls me Booger and Brooke, so it's fair game.

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Christmas felt really different this year! We had to stay home because Aaron was on call at work, so we just did our own little family thing. We did fondue Christmas Eve which is a Hale tradition and then we made a gingerbread house and opened PJ's from Nana, read a book from Nana and watched "The Grinch". Christmas morning we just spent it opening presents and playing with new toys! Then the next night we headed to Island Park to be with my family. It was all wonderful!

I recently told someone about how I was working like 4 very part time jobs, three of them freelance writing. They said, "No wonder you never have time to write on your own blog!" So very true. I have things I want to write about but never the time! But I have 25 minutes until I pick Brighty up from preschool so I'll post some pics and commentary.

Brighton is so imaginative! She comes up with the most random things. Notice how there is a piece of styrophome she lovingly put in her backpack and she's holding a wooden spoon she referred to as "Buddy" that day. She loaded up all her priceless items in her shopping cart and then wanted me to pull them all around. Also, it's not rare that she's not wearing any pants, LOL.

Since we don't have a truck or big SUV, we got a Christmas tree still bundled up and took our chances on what it would look like. When we got it open it was a mess! We had to cut off all these huge random branches and then the thing would NOT stay standing up. It was the poor, leaning Christmas tree all year. We had to shove water bottles in the stand to keep it from falling over

We were at the mall for something and noticed Santa Claus was there. It was a weekday and no one was in line, so I took Brighton to see him. She was so scared the last two years she said "I'm going to be a big girl this year and I won't be shy of Santa Claus." and she wasn't! She sat on his lap and told him she wanted a race car, which was really random, and a guitar with pink sprinkles. Santa gave me a weird look and I just shrugged.

You can see where Brighton gets her imagination! Aaron made this little fort out of work boxes!

So since Brighton "wasn't shy of Santa" at the mall, I thought she'd do great at the ward party, so I dressed her up all cute for pictures and then she wouldn't leave my arms! She had a serious death grip on me but told him she wanted a doll house.

Dancing with daddy at the party to "Two Pants Suit" our famous ward rock band! :)